Something to shout about for Tim Brown

BY FRED WOODCOCK

When Tim Brown was a young lad he ran around the parks of Karori, kicking a football and one day aspiring to be like Roy Keane.

Yes, Roy Keane, the former Manchester United captain, an Irish footballer plying his trade professionally on the world stage and living the dream – a million miles away, seemingly, from the relative footballing backwater of Wellington.

Oh, how times have changed.

The children still run around the parks of Karori, but these days it's not always an overseas star they want to be.

Some want to be Paul Ifill, some Liam Reddy, some Leo Bertos and some Tim Brown – players who they can watch live every second week, be inspired by, and meet in person.

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Stuff.co.nz will have full coverage, including live blog and photos of the Wellington Phoenix's bid for a place in the A-League grand final on Saturday night.

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"It was all guys in England or guys playing overseas," Brown says of his almost intangible childhood idols.

"To a certain extent, and in a small sort of way, maybe there are a few heroes with the Kiwi guys in the Phoenix now, and I think that's pretty exciting for New Zealand football. We've come a long way just to get to that point."

He remembers being at Wellington Airport about 12 years ago with current All Whites team-mates Leo Bertos and Chris Killen to see Killen off to Europe.

The trio, who grew up playing football together in Wellington, were teenagers and Killen had decided to take the plunge and head to England to try his luck with a professional football career. He signed as a youth player with Manchester City, eventually found himself at Scottish giants Celtic, and now plays for Middlesbrough.

"He had to go all the way over the other side of the world to chase that particular dream, so it just seemed like something that was so far away really," Brown reflects.

"That was always a dream for me, but it was always a dream that seemed a long way away. That's the great thing about the Phoenix now, people can see it on their doorstep.

"We train at Newtown Park No2 every week and it's a real possibility, [that dream] and it's making quite a lot of kids excited."

Indeed it is, and Brown does his bit off the park to help things along, too.

The University of Cincinnati graduate visited his old primary school in Karori, St Teresa's, and obviously left a mark on the children – they all sent through pictures of him to The Dominion Post's drawing competition two weeks ago.

He regularly attends the Wellington College prizegiving and is currently working on a project to build a football facility at the college, making use of a financial cut the Professional Footballers Association acquired from the All Whites-Bahrain World Cup qualifier in Wellington last year.

"There's something like 28 football teams there now, it blows me away. I'd say there would be lucky to be 10 when I was there."

Brown still has to pinch himself sometimes, to remind him he's playing professionally in his hometown and, as was the case against Newcastle last Sunday, attracting unprecedented crowds to Westpac Stadium on a dream A-League finals run.

When the club formed three years ago, that prospect was difficult for many followers of the game to imagine. Not Brown.

"The funny thing is, I could, and I think I have from the start," he says.

"If I couldn't have, I don't think I would have come back to Wellington, because building this thing from the start was always going to be difficult.

"It's taken time and now we've got quality players, systems in place, routines, and the club is going from strength to strength.

The players genuinely believed this was possible.

"Even at the start of the season, when we were near the bottom, we were playing well enough to believe this was a real possibility."

And what does he make of children wanting to be the next Tim Brown?

In typically humble fashion, he advises against it.

"Go for a Leo Bertos or someone a bit more exciting," he says with a laugh.

"It's a massive honour. I never thought anyone would look up to me in that way."

For Brown and his team-mates, it would be that much better to be a part of for one more week – grand final week.

AT A GLANCE

Name: Tim Brown
Age: 28
Born: Ascot, England
Position: Central midfielder
Previous clubs: Miramar Rangers, University of Cincinnati (US), Richmond Kickers (US), Newcastle Jets (Aus)
A-League season appearances: 26
Minutes played: 2371
Season goals: 8
All Whites caps: 28

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